Bias talk sharpens at debate

Oct. 13, 2006

Gubernatorial candidates Chet Culver, top center, and Jim Nussle, right, visit with panelists and moderators after debating at the Iowa Brown & Black Forum on Thursday night. The debate was held at Iowa Public Television in Johnston. / MARY CHIND/REGISTER PHOTOS

Written by

THOMAS BEAUMONT

REGISTER STAFF WRITER

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Chet Culver listens while Jim Nussle responds to a question during the debate, held in Johnston.

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Republican candidate for governor Jim Nussle took aim during a debate Thursday at Gov. Tom Vilsack's handling of racial discrimination claims in two state agencies, attacking the performance of the out-going governor more than he took aim at the Democrat's would-be successor, Chet Culver.

Culver, Iowa's secretary of state, again worked to associate Nussle and his eight terms in the U.S. House with President Bush and public dissatisfaction with Washington, D.C. The exchanges came during the second of four debates between the leading candidates for governor.

Nussle used the event sponsored by the Iowa Brown & Black Forum and held at Iowa Public Television to take on Vilsack, accusing him of delegating the task of rooting out bias in state government in light of recent revelations of discrimination allegations against state agencies.

A Des Moines Register investigation published last week shed light on complaints to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission that some Iowans were passed over for jobs or promotions in state departments because they were black.

"It's not something I'm going to delegate to a committee. It's not something I'm going to launch an investigation on. It's not something I'm going to pawn off on someone else," Nussle said.

Vilsack met with minority leaders last Friday and called for a wholesale review of hiring and promotion practices if a preliminary 90-day review finds cause for one. The task of carrying out the preliminary recommendations would fall to the next governor, as Vilsack's term ends in January. He is not seeking a third term.

Culver credited Vilsack for handling the allegations appropriately, and he promised to seek nondiscrimination legislation if he is elected.

"I think the governor has stepped up to the plate," he said.

Culver added: "We will have an across-the-board effort on diversity training in terms of hiring practices and making sure the state government is inclusive. I think actions speak louder than words."

Nussle promised he would not tolerate bias in government.

"This is the responsibility the governor has because along with being the chief executive, you're also the chief hiring officer," he said.

Nussle lumped the allegations of bias in with issues he has said have revealed inattentiveness in Vilsack's administration.

The CIETC scandal involving salaries at a state-funded employment training agency, the escape by two prisoners at Iowa's oldest maximum security prison and a controversy over lottery machines demonstrate what Nussle argued was reason to change from Democratic leadership to Republican.

"We have not paid attention to the weeds in the garden," he said, calling Vilsack's reactions to the issues "eight years late."

Culver said Vilsack had handled the crises, but pointed back at Nussle's role as budget chairman in the House and the federal deficit.

He referred to the sex scandal surrounding former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and associated Nussle with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

"I wish you would have spent the last 16 years focused so much on those scandals out there as opposed to raising questions about how we're doing things in Des Moines," Culver said.

Polls have shown neither candidate with a notable advantage with less than a month before the Nov. 7 election.

Thursday's debate was sharper in tone than the first one last week in Cedar Rapids. The third debate will be Monday, with the final one sponsored by The Des Moines Register on Oct. 21.